₱2.63 billion on the Loboc River: what the contract records show as residents ask for permits

On 1 November 2026, the Bohol Tribune reported that an advocacy group, tourism operators and residents are asking the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to release the environmental permits and technical studies behind a ₱3.5-billion river protection project on the Loboc River in Bohol. Dredging and steel sheet piling have resumed, and the group says it could not confirm whether an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) covers the current works.

The same report is careful on one point, and so are we: the paper notes that no one has alleged wrongdoing in the Loboc project. The questions are about permits, design, consultation and environmental safeguards. This article does not add allegations. It sets out what the public contract records on this site say about the Loboc River works, so residents, the Provincial Board and the agencies involved can work from the same numbers.

What the news says

According to the Bohol Tribune:

• Members of the Provincial Board's committees on environment and public works inspected the project after complaints and asked for the ECC, environmental permits, technical studies and compliance reports.
• The group, citing DPWH's own district engineer, said the project was suspended in 2025 for lacking an ECC and Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) resolutions. DPWH later reported applying for the ECC on 23 August 2025, and works resumed this month.
• Stakeholders said they do not oppose flood control. They said riverside families need protection after Typhoon Tino pushed floodwaters into homes on 4 November 2025, and that their concern is the design.
• The group asked for five things: release of the ECC, environmental documents, PAMB resolutions and hydraulic and scour designs; a pause on new in-river works on non-critical sections; an independent hydraulic and ecological assessment, including a firefly and riparian baseline; a hybrid design with enforced river easements and early warning; and completion of the Provincial Board review and a Commission on Audit (COA) audit.
• DPWH, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Loboc local government could not be reached for comment, the paper said.

The ECC requirement itself is not new. The Philippine Environmental Impact Statement System (Presidential Decree 1586) bars environmentally critical projects, and projects in environmentally critical areas, from proceeding without an ECC. The Tribune also notes that DPWH's own 2014 guidelines on river dredging for flood control require either a Certificate of Non-Coverage or an ECC from the DENR's Environmental Management Bureau.

What the contract records show

DPWH's Transparency portal lists contracts one by one, and this site imports them (see sources). Searching our records for "Loboc River Control Structure" turns up 12 large contracts funded under the 2023 and 2024 General Appropriations Acts, all filed under DPWH Region VII. Ten are sections in Loboc; two are the left and right banks of the Tambangan section in neighbouring Loay, where the river meets the sea.

Together they add up to ₱2,630,951,250, against approved budgets for the contracts totalling ₱2,653,750,000. That is about three quarters of the ₱3.5 billion figure in the news report. The difference may sit in contracts outside our snapshot, in later funding years, or in costs we do not track, such as studies; we have not been able to confirm which.

Each contract number links to its page on this site, which in turn links to the DPWH Transparency portal entry.

Five things the numbers say

1. Every target date had passed. All 12 contracts are listed as "On-Going," and every one had passed its target completion date by the time of the snapshot we hold. The 2023 sections were due between January 2024 and August 2025; the three 2024 sections were all due on 19 September 2025. A pause for permits, like the 2025 suspension the group describes, would be one reason a schedule slips, and DPWH can record suspensions and time extensions that our dataset may not show.

2. Four sections show no recorded progress. Canlasid and Agape in Loboc and both banks of Tambangan in Loay show 0% progress. Together those four contracts are worth ₱832,004,465, almost a third of the total. Zero progress can mean the work never started, that it was suspended, or simply that the field was not updated. The records alone cannot tell which.

3. Overall, about half the money is matched by recorded work. Weighting each contract's progress by its value gives a combined figure of about 50%. The most advanced sections are Bagumbayan (89%), the Ugpong to Villaflor left bank (83%) and Poblacion Sawang (80%).

4. Three contractors hold all 12 contracts. As recorded, HGG Builders & Supply appears on five contracts worth ₱1.13 billion (one as part of a joint venture), Supreme ABF Const. & Const. Supply Co. on four worth ₱928 million (one in a joint venture), and Elite General Contractor and Development Corp. on three worth ₱573 million. Concentration in a big, technical river job is not unusual, and nothing in these records suggests wrongdoing by any of them.

5. Five awards sit at the budget ceiling. Canlasid, Bagumbayan and all three 2024 sections were awarded at 99.99% or more of the approved budget for the contract. The other seven came in between 97.9% and 99.0%. Close-to-ceiling awards are common across DPWH contracts and are an indicator worth a closer look, not a finding.

Older, smaller Loboc River works

The 2023–2024 contracts are not the first on this river. Our records also hold smaller, completed Loboc River control contracts under the Bohol 3rd District Engineering Office, each under ₱50 million:

The step up is sharp: from contracts of ₱3 million to ₱49 million a year, to twelve contracts of ₱166 million to ₱241 million each over two years. A larger scale of work on a river that runs through a protected watershed and past a national cultural treasure, the Loboc Church, is exactly the kind of change that environmental review is meant to examine.

Separately, a ₱241.2 million contract to rebuild the Tigbao Bridge in Bagumbayan, Loboc, which includes river slope protection, was 78% complete in our records against a June 2026 target. We have kept it out of the totals above because it is a bridge contract.

What documents would settle the open questions

Most of the questions raised in Loboc can be answered with papers that already exist, or should exist:

• The ECC or Certificate of Non-Coverage for each section, with its date, from DENR's Environmental Management Bureau in Region VII.
• PAMB resolutions, if the works fall inside the protected area, as the group says.
• Hydraulic and scour designs and the program of work for each contract, which show why steel sheet piling and dredging were chosen.
• Suspension and resumption orders and time extensions, which would explain the past-due target dates and the 0% sections.
• Statements of work accomplished and payments, which would show how much has been paid against the ₱2.63 billion.

Anyone can request these under the Freedom of Information program from DPWH and DENR. The Provincial Board has already asked for most of them.

The wider budget moment

This comes as the Senate prepares to resume plenary debate on the proposed ₱7.2-trillion 2027 budget on 9 November, with senators saying no item will be spared from review, according to The Manila Times. River control and flood control lines in Bohol and elsewhere will be part of that debate. You can see what the House changed for your own district on our district scorecard, and draft a polite, sourced letter to your representative with the district letter tool.

How we did this

We searched our imported DPWH contract records for "Loboc River Control Structure," excluding records marked as duplicates, and kept the 12 contracts numbered 23H and 24H from the 2023 and 2024 appropriations. Costs, progress, dates and contractor names are as recorded on the DPWH Transparency portal, imported through the BetterGov.PH mirror of that portal (mirror updated 22 January 2026). Progress figures may lag what is on the ground. Contractor names are shown as recorded and do not imply any finding about the company. See our methodology.

Right of reply

DPWH Region VII, the Bohol 3rd District Engineering Office, DENR's Environmental Management Bureau, the Loboc and Loay local governments and the contractors named in the records are welcome to send corrections, context or documents, such as ECCs, suspension orders or updated progress reports. We will update this article and the project pages. Write to us through the submission page.

Indicator worth a closer look. Not an accusation or a finding of wrongdoing.

Related flags on this site

• HGG Builders & Supply, concurrent flood-control value · High Concurrent Workload for One Contractor. Recorded flood-control contract value of about ₱2.99 billion, above the level 95% of peers carry.
• HGG Builders & Supply, Marinduque District Engineering Office · Contractor Concentration (Flood Control). About 41% of the office's recorded flood-control contract value.
• HGG Builders & Supply, Marinduque province · Contractor Concentration (Flood Control). About 43% of the province's recorded flood-control contract value.
• Wahig River flood control, Sierra Bullones, Bohol · Awards Very Close to the Budget Ceiling. Contract cost recorded at or above 99.5% of the approved budget.
• Casbu flood control, Guindulman, Bohol · Awards Very Close to the Budget Ceiling. Contract cost recorded at or above 99.5% of the approved budget.
• Ubay flood control structure, Ubay, Bohol · Awards Very Close to the Budget Ceiling. Contract cost recorded at or above 99.5% of the approved budget.

Data as of 22 January 2026 (DPWH Transparency portal via the BetterGov.PH mirror, imported 21 October 2026). News details are as reported by the cited outlets.